We’re thrilled to announce the release of our new App for Windows 8 PCs and tablets. This native App includes a fully responsive layout, personalized dashboard with recommendations and “continue watching” features, offline-viewing mode for learning on the go, and much more. And it’s free to all.

lynda.com is passionate about delivering the best learning experience possible—in all the places you love to learn. Get the same high-quality training from our expert instructors whether you’re on a Windows 8 device, Galaxy, iPhone, or even Kindle. Check out our Mobile Apps page to make sure you have our apps for all of your devices!

Swift is a new programming language developed by Apple for iOS and OS X app development, which builds on the best parts of many popular languages like Objective-C, Ruby, Python, C# and more. Announced at Apple’s annual WWDC developer conference this year, Swift is the culmination of years of “skunkworks” development alongside optimizations made to Apple’s SDKs and developer tools.

Facebook has just released an update to its standalone messaging app, and the changes are significant. The app has been completely redesigned for both iOS and Android platforms and boasts many aesthetic and functionality changes as well.

Aside from the new look, the biggest change is the ability to message people who aren’t among your Facebook friends. This is contingent on whether you allow the app to access your phone number and/or contacts list; if you allow it, others will be able to message you directly, regardless of whether they are on your list of friends, and you’ll be able to do the same.